“ Once that fatal habit of distrust is contracted, human weakness applies it to everything. ”
Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma (1839). copy citation
| Author | Stendhal |
|---|---|
| Source | The Charterhouse of Parma |
| Topic | weakness distrust |
| Date | 1839 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Mary Loyd |
| Weblink | https://www.gutenberg.org/files/57638/57638-h/57638-h.htm |
Context
“[141] justice, happiness of the greatest number, are infamous and criminal; they give men’s minds a habit of discussion and disbelief. A Chamber of Deputies mistrusts what those people call the ministry. Once that fatal habit of distrust is contracted, human weakness applies it to everything. Man ends by distrusting the Bible, the commands of the Church, tradition, etc., and thenceforward he is lost. Even supposing—and it is horribly false and criminal to say it—this distrust of the authority of the princes set up by God could insure happiness during the twenty or thirty years of life on which each of us may reckon, what is half a century, or even a whole century, compared with an eternity of torment?””
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